Unfortunately, clicking on the YouTube video doesn't send you to the search results page for [John Lennon], but Google used a trick: after playing the video, you're automatically redirected to the search results.

Imagine is not as "anti-religious" as it is anti- artificial-division. Look at the damage that religious and political schisms have caused over the last 40 years. Now, imagine what would have happened if we paid attention.

I think Lennon's "Imagine" is less anti-religious (as one writer put it) than that it's simply saying that we, as a people of the earth, shouldn't need religion to be at peace with our brothers and sisters who co-inhabit this place we call Earth. Then again, I guess I'm a dreamer too. John, wherever you are, your intentions were pure. Happy Birthday, my friend.

Kudos to the Google person or persons who originated the notion of paying tribute to John in this fashion; I'm now an even bigger fan of your company. Miss John and George, but thankful we still have Paul and Ringo.

Okay, I can understand celebrating the life of John Lennon for his part in the Beatles despite his rabid atheism/communism, but to celebrate his birthday with the piece of radical communist propaganda that is Imagine?

It seems like those wanting to celebrate Lennon's life wouldn't want to focus on his support of one of the most evil (and thoroughly failed) political ideologies of recent history...

Now imagine if your 85% of the worlds population that believe in their respective religions are all wrong. then imagine how the world would be if all those people with religious differences that have been in conflict with other religions all this time, actually put all that effort into just being good to one another instead of trying to prove whose religion is supposedly the right one.

Well, if Google wants to openly support the religious system of atheism/humanism, I don't really have a problem with that (though obviously it makes me less inclined to support them financially when there are good alternatives). It just _seems_ like that blatant anti-capitalism/anti-freedom/anti-democracy/anti-Americanism aren't things Google would be so eager to support.

I have to agree. Why not use HTML5's audio element? It would take two lines of code to declare fallbacks depending on the user's browser (an .ogg for FF and Chrome users and another one with .mp3 for Safari users) and still embed the song with flash as a third fallback for those still using IE.

Its a great doodle... besides, even if the song is a little trying to convince people to become atheists, so what? Religions do that all the time? Why do you think some religions go door to door in the first place?

http://www.simplygooglefromonepage.blogspot.com is a roundup of every Google search and service out there on one convenient page. For those people who don't have time to learn the shortcuts or creating smart keywords, this page puts everything Google has to offer on one page.

"We, as a people of the earth, shouldn't need religion to be at peace"

That is only true if several major world religions, including both Christianity and Islam just for starters, are basically false in their essential truth claims. (law of non-contradiction)

I don't agree with the currently popular interpretation of history that wants to blame "religion" for wars, as though every point of view that disagrees with Lennon's radical materialistic ethically-subjective atheism is "religion" and "religion" can be blamed for all the world's woes. That basically boils down to, "The reason there are wars because people don't agree with me" which is in no way better than or above what any "religion" claims.

No, actually all these "religious wars" were mostly about territory and economics more than "religion" however much the corrupt political leaders on either side wanted to toot the sacred horn and try to disguise their real motives with false/fake knock-off second-rate versions of great religions. The problem isn't "religion" it's human nature and at least some aspects of "religion" are part of the solution, not part of the problem.

I'm quite sure Google weren't trying to promote atheism, Marxism or anything else like that. They just picked "Imagine" because it's Lennon's most famous song. They didn't even include the bit about no religion or possessions, they only had the fairly innocent and cheerful chorus, anyone who didn't already know the themes of the song still wouldn't after seeing the video.

Btw, I don't agree with Lennon's anti-religious views (like Nerd42 said, most "religious wars" are and were actually in the name of economics and power) but I still admire him for his talent and his amazing contributions to music with the Beatles and on his own.